Without the writing community, I never would have published the books that I did. There is some truth to the statement, "It's who you know". The romance writing community is particularly tight and opportunities can come down to who you know.

Through the community is how I learned to polish my writing, eliminate mistakes before I ever made them, and get support for my dream. I got support from my local organization, my critique group, online writing forums and fellow African-American writers. That connection to the community of writers kept me informed, made me well-known at confrences and garnered opportunity for me.

It's now been about five years since I've had that tight connection with the community and I'm very wary about how much I want to dive back in. I've always kept a thread of connection alive through my critique group, but those other ties have been broken over the years.

So while I'm aware of all the benefits the writing community has provided me with over the years, I'm now keenly aware of the other side... a feeling of competition. Seeing writers who've made five years worth of progress while I've basically stayed in one place. They've been selling books like gangbusters while I've focused on personal issues like depression, illness and marriage.

But, when I have those fears, writers from the community tell me... I've faced those issues, too. I survived them. I've come back from it. You can, too!

So the moral of this story is, good or bad, don't isolate yourself from the community. It's made up of people like you.